The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he's a fool, and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others less fortunate like him are cold and starving.

CBC shows up to provide live coverage of the shivering grasshopper, with cuts to a video of the ant in his comfortable warm home with a table filled with food. Canadians are stunned that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so while others have plenty.

The NDP, the CAW and the Coalition Against Poverty demonstrate in front of the ant's house. The CBC, interrupting an Inuit cultural festival special from Nunavut with breaking news, broadcasts them singing "We Shall Overcome." Svend Robinson rants in an interview with Pamela Wallin that the ant has gotten rich off the backs of grasshoppers, and calls for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his "fair share."

In response to polls, the Liberal Government drafts the Economic Equity and Grasshopper Anti-Discrimination Act, retroactive to the beginning of the summer. The ant's taxes are reassessed and he is also fined for failing to hire grasshoppers as helpers. Without enough money to pay both the fine and his newly imposed retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the government. The ant moves to the US, starts a successful agribiz company.

The CBC later shows the now fat grasshopper finishing up the last of the ant's food though spring is still months away, while the government house he is in, which just happens to be the ant's old house, crumbles around him because he hadn't maintained it. Inadequate government funding is blamed, Roy Romanow is appointed to head a commission of enquiry that will cost $10,000,000.

The grasshopper is soon dead of a drug overdose, the Toronto Star blames it on obvious failure of government to address the root causes of despair arising from social inequity. The abandoned house is taken over by a gang of immigrant spiders, praised by the government for enriching Canada's multicultural diversity, who promptly terrorize the community.

The other day, my mother in law emailed me a "modified" version of it. The story goes the same at the begining, the grasshopper is playing the violin and having a great time all summer while the ant is working like a slave to prepare for the winter. Then the winter comes and the ant hears the grasshopper knocking on the door. The ant opens the door, kind of mad, expecting the grasshopper to beg for food. To her surprise the grasshopper is driving a Ferrari, and is just there to show-off and to wish good luck to the ant, as he is going somewhere (where there is a sunny weather, I believe Florida). And tells the ant that while playing the violin, a talent-hunter from FL discovered him and they signed a multi-million contract while having fun and drinking at a bar.

Then, the story goes on to tell you to live life and enjoy it, and not to spend your life working like a slave.

My mother-in-law spends all the money she earns and probably travels to an exotic place in the world twice a year. Anyway, I believe she has no savings and is probably 10 years away from retirement age.